"The manner of the country makes the usage of
life there, and the land will not be lived in except in its own fashion."
- Mary Austin
I read that quote when reading about the Dust Bowl,
but it came to mind as I was remembering Amsterdam: A History of the World's
Most Liberal City by Russell Shorto.
Shorto reviews the history of the city itself, and
how Dutch settlers in New York (formerly New Amsterdam) influenced the development of the United States government. I read it because so many of the girls I wanted to help were
Dutch, and I thought knowing more about their country might help. It ended up
teaching me more about my country.
Regardless, one of the key points was that the
democratic and liberal nature of Amsterdam was largely
influenced by the watery land. Establishing the dikes and drainage required a
communal effort, where everyone had to work together. That could have led to a
greater sense of equality and community spirit.
I have some messy related thoughts. One is that -
despite the high costs of ignoring the manner of the country that led to the
Dust Bowl - we have managed to ignore the manner of the land a lot now. We can
get away with it because so many people are not directly involved in
agriculture and they don't see it. Nutrient levels in foods have gone down,
commercial feed lots are horrible in terms of the waste and the health of the
animals, and it all includes over-reliance on fossil fuels with those
accompanying problems.
(The documentary King Corn or book The
Omnivore's Dilemma are good starting places, but there is a lot of
information out there. The issues are easy to ignore, but you don't have to.)
Subsistence farming did not have to have these
issues; they come up when there are people trying to get rich. I am more aware
of this after studying child labor and racism and slavery. Two key industries
where slavery grew were tobacco and sugar. Both require a lot of labor, and one
person is not going to make great profits; that requires multiple people who
can be abused. Sugar requires a larger initial capital investment, which added
limitations to who could get involved, but getting started in tobacco was
relatively easy when people could be bought and used cheaply.
Changing agriculture could do a lot for the
environment and for human health, and getting more people involved in growing
things could help. Even with a sense of working for the greater good, it would
be possible for that to be a largely solitary practice.
However, we may be at a point where we can feel our
need to work together and unite.
I know people who feel they do not know enough to
contribute. I may be part of the problem there, with all of my reading lists
and things. The thing is, I like reading and I like knowing stuff - that is a natural
path for me to take. It's not the only one.
You can learn things from articles. You can learn
things from other people. You can learn things from classes and voter
pamphlets. And you do not need to know everything to be able to know that some
options are better and worse. When I said I wanted everyone to vote - no matter
how much I disagree with their choices - I meant that. We should all be
participating and we can all participate.
There are people who will decry that, because so
many people are stupid and we are better off with them not voting. In general,
the people who put forth that kind of thinking are in favor of some pretty
harmful policies. Of course they don't want people voting, and since they are
already tearing people down through legislative and corporate means, why not
also tell people they are stupid? Maybe they will believe they deserve
everything bad that happens to them.
I will never be able to support this. Yes, people
can be stupid and intractable and petty and malicious. They can also be
generous, kind, self-sacrificing to the point of heroic and very good.
Since the election, I have seen some people who were
always kind of trivial before start to really care. People who have never
protested or contacted a representative before have now. There are
imperfections, but I am sure there were many imperfections amongst the early
Dutch people pulling land from water.
Working together can help us learn to appreciate
each other. It can help us spot the goodness in each other, and it can develop
more goodness.
I never thought much about the motto "Stronger
together" when it was first chosen, but I keep seeing more and more how
true it is.
That makes the election results more tragic, but it
also points to the best path ahead.
Related posts:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment